Advisors Who Aren’t Doing Their Jobs
I’m astonished to discover how many aren’t discussing Social Security
Ric Edelman: It's Wednesday, January 17th on today's show, Social Security. So how much do you know about Social Security? Okay, you're a financial advisor. You know a lot, but your clients don't. Not even 1 in 10 Americans know how to maximize their Social Security benefits. The problem is, they think they can.
In a recent survey, 49% of U.S. adults said they know how to maximize their Social Security benefits. But when they took a quiz, only 8% of them correctly identified all the factors that go into figuring out the maximum benefits you can get from Social Security.
All right, so none of this is a surprise to you. Your clients don't know how to maximize their Social Security benefits, but you do. That's why your clients are your clients, right? They lack the knowledge that you have. That's why they hired you. So you can share your knowledge with them and put your knowledge to work for them. So explain this to me then, in that same survey that discovered that clients don't know how to maximize their Social Security benefits, more than half of the people who have a financial advisor said that their advisor has not given them any advice on Social Security. And for those who are too young to be worried about it right now, half of them said that they don't think their advisor is going to give them the advice when the time comes.
So I put it to you, fancy pants financial advisor, what's going on here? Why aren't you talking to your clients about Social Security? This is a huge way you can demonstrate your value to them. Their Social Security benefits are a huge part of their retirement income needs. Failing to help them with this is a huge error on your part. You shouldn't even be waiting for them to get to age 60 to start talking about it. You should start talking to them while they're in their 30s and 40s.
Why? So you can demonstrate that you will be providing value to them long into the future as their lives change and evolve. And because if they're in their 30s or 40s, their parents are in their 60s and they need help right now, what a wonderful way to engage in multigenerational planning, really improving your client value and client service. And oh my goodness, you might end up with new clients at the same time. I'm amazed that so few financial advisors are actively engaging with their clients about Social Security. Do this today. Your clients or their parents need the help. It's part of your fiduciary responsibility, and you'll win new clients as a result of it. Your practice will grow when you do the right thing.
And if you're the client hearing this and your advisor is not talking to you about Social Security, maybe it's time to get a new advisor.
On tomorrow's show, we're going to be talking about accredited investors and the big scary aspect of a lot of them.
-----